High Impact in Small Doses

Let’s get one thing straight; I’m not afraid of color or pattern. Or commitment, for that matter. But sometimes the idea of covering an entire wall or room in a very bold look can be a little too much. For anyone who isn’t quite ready to make the plunge, but would like to dip a toe into the pool, there’s always the throw pillow. Many of the big wallpaper brands produce their prints in fabric as well, which makes it possible to find throw pillows that offer the high impact of bold patterns, in smaller doses. Much easier on the wallet, too.

Hinson Martinique wallpaper in bathroom via Apartment Therapy

Tropical print pillow by Whitlock & Co.

 

 Designer Tiffany Richey’s office with Thibaut Tanzania wallpaper

Les Touches pillow from Arianna Belle 

Hotel Bedding

Every once in a while, something that is typically thought of as classic is paid a lot of attention, and becomes almost a trend. Hotel bedding is one example. The layering of crisp white sheets, emulating a luxurious, comfortable hotel stay is a great as either a stand-alone look or as a backdrop for more colorful prints. It's certainly nothing new, but it seems to be especially prevalent these days. So is it a fad or is it a classic? You decide. 

Guest bedroom via Elle Decor

This classic triple embroidered stripe bedding is available by Frette, Pottery Barn and Luxor Linens

Bedroom via Lonny Mag

O Baratoo Bamboo bedding

Bedroom via Lonny Mag

A delicate tipped edge style is available at Restoration Hardware

Better Than Sliced Bread: Good Guide

True story: I once spent 1 hour and 45 minutes at the drug store trying to find the shampoos that do and do not contain Methylisothiazolinone or MIT. It's an ingredient that a National Institute of Health study has shown to cause nervous system damage in rats and yet is still found in shampoos and soaps. And it's one of a pretty long list of toxic chemicals that are still allowed in household products despite being identified as harmful by the EPA and listed in the Center for Disease Control's Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) database. But where is the common consumer to get this information, much less screen it from the millions of products lining the pharmacy shelf?

Enter Good Guide.

In the modern age of products loaded with harmful ingredients, Good Guide is like a magic 8 ball for what you want to know. Founded in 2007, the online guide has independently tested thousands of products in every category (health and beauty, household cleaning, food, apparel, appliances, etc.) and given them a rating based on how safe or harmful the ingredients are to human health, the product's impact on the environment and the brand's ethical and corporate practices. Ratings are very clearly broken down to show how and why the product has earned each score.

Use it as a reference for your future purchases to save your time and your health.

Update: 

For more information on beauty products, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. The database assigns detailed ratings to both products as well as individual ingredients. Click on each ingredient to see not only list the level of health risk, but the specific adverse effects and the numerous studies that revealed them.

Make Your Own Art: Abstract Spots

The easiest art to make yourself doesn't involve any skill at all. In fact, lack of skill is encouraged. All you need is a blank canvas and some paint to drip, dribble and splatter. Get your inspiration here:

Jenna Lyon's dining room with abstract dot painting via Domino Mag
 

Yayoi Kusama, Accumulation, 1952 

DIY Fabric Shades

Fabric shades work for any decor style, and are a great way to add warmth and color to a room. But no matter how you slice it, fabric shades are expensive - even the cheapest are 3 to 4 times the cost of vinyl blinds. Here is a great way to turn traditional vinyl blinds into a roman shade at a fraction of the cost. 

You will need: 

-Traditional vinyl blinds

-Fabric* 

-Plastic rings

-Scissors

-Needle and thread

-All purpose or fabric glue

-Tape measure or ruler

*To get the size of fabric you will need for each shade, measure the size of your window and add 4 inches to the width and 6 inches to the length. I used a lightweight linen so that the light could filter through it as much as possible, as my room is quite dark. The light weight results in a very casual shade, with the sides hanging loose. If you are looking for more privacy or a more structured look, you can use a heavier weight fabric or sew a cotton layer behind your face fabric.

How to Save Water: Replacing a Shower Head

The hardest part of replacing a shower head is choosing among the various options for a new one. Once that's done, replacing the fixture takes about 10 minutes. If you're a renter, you can keep the old one and swap it back when you leave, taking your water-efficient new shower head with you.

You will need:
-A new shower head
-Plumber's tape (also referred to as Teflon tape)
-Pliers or a wrench
-A rag

1. Use the pliers or wrench to loosen and unscrew the shower head from the pipe that leads into the wall. If you plan on saving the old shower head, place a rag between the fixture and the pliers to keep from scratching it.
2. Clean off any old tape or dirt on the threaded end of the pipe and wrap some new plumber's tape around the threaded end of the flange. Apply several layers clockwise and wrap it tightly, making sure it gets pressed into the grooves of the threading. This will prevent leaks between the pipe and the fixture.
3. Screw on the new shower head (no need to use the wrench or pliers)
4. Turn the shower on to make sure there are no leaks. Tighten the shower head or reapply plumber's tape if needed.

Save Water, Add Style: Choosing a New Shower Head

By far the easiest plumbing fixture to replace yourself is the shower head, and doing so can have a huge impact on the looks and water use of your bathroom. Older shower heads use a LOT of water, raising both the water bill as well as the energy bill, since heating hot water constitutes a large part of building energy use. If your shower head was installed before 1992 (when the Energy & Policy Act of 1992 went into effect), it can be using over 5 gallons of water a minute - enough to fill an entire bathtub in 9 minutes flat!  Replacing that shower head could reduce shower consumption by about 70%. Even if you have a 2.5 gallon per minute (gpm) fixture, which became the legal limit after 1992, updating to a 2.0 or even a 1.75 gpm model can save 20%-30% of your water use.

What's wrong with a 2.5 gpm fixture? Well, nothing, really. But the thing to keep in mind when you hear about plumbing code or legal limits for plumbing fixtures is that it is a law. Meaning the bare minimum. Meaning the WORST possible thing you can still legally build because it is against the law to do any worse. If you want to accomplish significant water savings and have the fixture pay for itself in about a year, it’s possible to do much, much better. 

The great news is that there have been leaps and bounds in plumbing technology in the past few years, and switching to a high-efficiency shower head does not mean sacrificing your shower experience. Not. One. Bit. Regardless of what your brother's friend's aunt said about one she tried 30 years ago. Shower manufacturers have tweaked the size of the droplets and the speed of the flow to create products that look and feel (and wash out shampoo from long hair, reports a girl with long hair named me) just as well. In fact, this one reason alone may make for an even better shower experience: your water-hogging shower head will no longer cause you to run out of hot water.